Fire in Batumi hotel kills eleven - UPDATED

A fire in a hotel in Georgia’s Black Sea resort city of Batumi killed 11 people including one Iranian and 10 Georgian citizens, an official said on Saturday, APA reports quoting Reuters.

“Unfortunately, 11 people were killed and 19 were injured in a fire,” Giorgi Gakharia, Georgia’s interior minister, told reporters.

The fire started late on Friday on one floor of the Leogrand hotel and spread quickly. Batumi is about 360 km from Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital.

The hotel has been scheduled to be a venue for the Miss Georgia beauty contest on Sunday. According to officials, no participants of the contest, who were staying at the hotel, were injured in the blaze.

Speaking to reporters in Batumi, Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia said fire may have erupted on the fourth floor of the building. “Unfortunately, the only stair-case was filled with smoke and the people were left stranded on the seventh floor,” Gakharia noted, adding that the firefighters had to use rescue cranes to evacuate the visitors from the building. As of 00:55, the evacuation was announced over.

Zaal Mikeladze, minister of healthcare and social protection in Adjara’s regional government, told reporters that 21 persons were hospitalized with signs of smoke inhalations, 18 of whom remain in Batumi hospitals, including one Israeli, five Turkish and 12 Georgian citizens.

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00:52

As a result of a fire in the hotel "Leogrand" in Batumi, 12 people were killed told the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, APA’s Georgian bureau reports.

“Up to 100 firefighters/rescue workers are mobilized to fight fire in Batumi five-star hotel, Leogrand, reads the statement of the Georgian MIA”

According to the MIA, their personalities are being identified at this stage. Rescuers and policemen evacuated more than a hundred people from the hotel. Among them are guests, as well as hotel staff. Due to the different stages of intoxication, people in the hotel are transported to Batumi clinics.

The management center in the hotel "Leo Grand is active, which is headed by Levan Maisuradze, Head of Ajara Main Division of Patrol Police Department, ".